A second attempt to attract a cell tower company to lease land near Hildreth House, construct a cell tower, and share rental revenue with the town has failed. Town Administrator Tim Bragan delivered the news to the Select Board at its Nov. 21 meeting. The board agreed that, once again, the request for proposals, or RFP, should be modified to be more palatable for bidders and re-advertised in the state’s central register.
Two years ago, a study on the strength of cellphone signals in Harvard showed that the area around town center, including the schools and the fire station, the eastern portion of Still River Road, and around Bare Hill Pond, was unreliable. The town voted to lease land just to the west of Hildreth House for a cell tower, and a request for proposals, asking for $50,000 in base rent, went out in February. There were no responses.
Town administrators consulted with Dave Maxson, co-founder of Isotrope LLC, the wireless communication consulting firm that did the cellphone strength study, and he suggested lowering the rent to $25,000. The modified RFP went out in August, and responses were due Oct. 30. Again, there were none.
In an email to town administrators, Maxson said he spoke to a tower operator who did not bid. The operator said that even at the reduced rental rate, he would have to rent space on the tower to three carriers to reach a positive cash flow, and that could take years.
Select Board members agreed that unreliable cellphone coverage, especially near the beach, is a public safety issue. Bragan related an account of an accident on Depot Road at the intersection of Under Pin Hill Road. He said a vehicle struck a pole, and one person was bleeding from a head wound. The people in the vehicle could not get a cellphone signal and had to run from house to house until they found someone who could help contact emergency services.
The board discussed the options Maxson mentioned to attract bidders, including lowering the amount of revenue the town is requesting, and helping to obtain the zoning approvals needed for the tower’s height and setback requirements. Member Kara Minar suggested the town do “pre-zoning,” so that the winning bidder would not need to be involved in the zoning process, which Bragan described as long and arduous.
Although the town wouldn’t know the proposed height until a winning bidder was chosen, Minar said the zoning could specify a maximum. In 2022, a crane test to determine the visual impact of a cell tower in the proposed location showed that a 135-foot tower would be visible from many spots in the center of town but imperceptible from most areas outside the center.
Bragan suggested using wording in the RFP that said the town was in the process of starting the necessary zoning work, and Maiore agreed with that approach. Bragan said he would work with Maxson to assemble the maps and data that will be needed for the permitting process. In addition, the RFP’s revenue request will be lowered from $25,000 to an as yet unspecified amount, according to Bragan.
